Republican debate: Trump called out by Christie and DeSantis for skipping debate

Former President Donald Trump was called out by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for skipping the second Republican debate.

Christie became the first candidate to call out Trump, portraying it as a cowardly move. DeSantis backed up this sentiment, deriding Trump as “missing in action” and drawing a comparison between him and President Joe Biden.

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“Where’s Joe Biden? He’s completely missing in action from leadership,” DeSantis began. “And you know who else is missing an action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record, where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt. That set the stage for the inflation that we have now.”

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The Florida governor then contrasted his criticism with his own record as governor of Florida.

“I can tell you this as governor of Florida: We cut taxes, we ran surpluses, we’ve paid down over 25% of our state debt, and I vetoed wasteful spending when it came in my desk, and as your president, when they send me a bloated spending bill that’s going to cause your prices to go up, I’m going to take out this veto pen, and I’m going to send it right back to them,” he added, pulling out a pen.

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Christie’s comments were similar, comparing Trump to Biden and taking issue with the national debt.

“We don’t get any answers because Joe Biden hides in his basement and won’t answer as to why he’s raising the debt the way he’s done,” he said. “And Donald Trump, he hides behind the walls of his golf clubs and won’t show up here to answer questions like all the rest of us are up here to answer. He put $7 trillion on the debt. He should be in this room to answer those questions for the people you talk about who are suffering.”